Increasingly, it is starting to look like the Bush administration is on the right side, even instinctively, for once. They are still standing with Georgia against Russia in South Ossetia. They are still not blindly accepting the claims of Russia about atrocities by Georgia against the Ossetians.
Meanwhile, Russia is not helping it's cause. They have not withdrawn, which they may or may not have interpreted as one of the terms of the ceasefire. They have also advanced which cannot possibly be interpreted as being allowed under the terms of the ceasefire.
I would really like to know, now that the Russian Army has all but destroyed the Georgian Army exactly how much of a threat does it present to them or the Ossetians?
In addition organizations such as Human Rights Watch are both casting some doubt on Russian claims of Georgia atrocities, such as the alleged 2000 Ossetians massacred:
A doctor at Tskhinvali Regional Hospital who was on duty from the afternoon of August 7 told Human Rights Watch that between August 6 to12 the hospital treated 273 wounded, both military and civilians. She said her hospital was the only clinic treating the wounded in Tskhinvali. The doctor said there were more military personnel than civilians among the wounded and added that all of the wounded were later transferred to the Russian Ministry of Emergencies mobile hospitals in South and North Ossetia. As of August 13, there were no wounded left in the Tskhinvali hospital.
The doctor also said that 44 bodies had been brought to the hospital since the fighting began, of both military and civilians. The figure reflects only those killed in the city of Tskhinvali. But the doctor was adamant that the majority of people killed in the city had been brought to the hospital before being buried, because the city morgue was not functioning due to the lack of electricity in the city.
and shedding light on ongoing abuses clearly caused by, if not directly effected by, the Russian invasion:
On August 13, Russian forces seemed to be taking measures to prevent the looting of Georgian villages; the road south from the town of Java to Tskhinvali was closed to members of South Ossetian paramilitary groups. Russian officers at the checkpoint told Human Rights Watch that the road closure was due to the massive looting taking place in Georgian villages along the road.
However, moving back from Tskhinvali to Java on the evening of August 13, Human Rights Watch researchers saw, for the second day running, houses that were ablaze in several Georgian villages. They had clearly just been torched. One counterintelligence officer of the South Ossetian forces claimed to Human Rights Watch that: “We burned these houses. We want to make sure that they [the Georgians] can’t come back, because if they do come back, this will be a Georgian enclave again and this should not happen.”
The officer went on to describe events during the fighting, including the execution of a Georgian armed man: “The day before yesterday [August 11, 2008], the Georgians killed two of my soldiers in the village of Tamarasheni. We had been conducting a sweep operation there. We detained three of them. Two of them didn’t do anything to us so we just let them go – we couldn't take them anywhere as I had to take care of my own men first. The third one seemed to be high on something – a normal person would have surrendered, and this one was shooting at us instead. We questioned him and then executed him.”
He expressed concern about the ongoing pillaging: “There are looters everywhere in these villages. ... The looters are now moving to Gori (I went there this morning). The fighting there is over, and now the looters are looting there to profit from this war. Someone has to do something about it.”
Russia continues to come out in this badly. Maybe their orignal intention
was to act in a peacekeeping role. Regardless, they are now being seen, and will continue to be seen as aggressors. They need to step back.
The rest of eastern Europe as well as most of the rest of the world will not idly sit by while Russia seems to impose it's will on it's neighbors. We did that in the 50's and 60's. We weren't happy with the consequences of sitting on our hands then. We shall not do so this time.
That being said, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's 'interesting' assumptions need to come to an end. He is doing a great deal of damage with his rhetoric. Hopefully, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice essentially tells him to 'shut up' and let everyone else speak. Or at least encourages him to get his facts straight before he actually says anything.
I know the man likes President George W. Bush, but
come on, you don't have to be as cowboyish in your rhetoric as he has been. Even George W. Bush has learned moderation, especially when speaking on international issues.
We, the United States, as I said in a previous post, don't have either the moral authority we once did, nor do we have the physical authority to affect this situation. Thanks to our actions in Iraq we have been deprived of both. This may be the reason Russian President Dmitri Medvedev seems so comfortable doing as he wishes.
I think, given the fact that nearly all of western and eastern Europe is now united in oppostion to Russia's actions, that may prove the decisive factor. This is not the communist Soviet Union. Russia may not need the United States, but it does need the west.
That is why I am hopeful that eventually this conflict will be resolved. Preferably sooner, rather than later.
Comments welcome,
Pat McGovern
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